It starts out promising enough, as Sharman begins with the traumatic childhood that, many years later, will cause our main character, Frank, to resolve that his dying father will never have any connection with Frank's won son, now a young child.

At first it seems like the grandfather simply wants to leave his estate to his grandson, a move Frank is determined to block. But once Frank's father dies, weird things start to happen.

At first it's pretty standard creepy stuff, like the dead man appearing in photographs that were taken after he died, the odd bit of telekinetic activity, and a genuine psychic who senses the evil stuff going on. (That's a device that I usually like and I liked it here, too.)

But Sharman doesn't seem to have a clear idea of where this is going or even what's actually happening. The evil spirit of Frank's father conveniently has "whatever" superpowers, so there's no reason for one thing to happen or another not to happen.

The cover, for instance, features a creepy Raggedy Ann-type doll, which, sure enough, ends up being a surprisingly efficient instrument of (attempted) murder. But how? And if the ghost can do that, why doesn't it do a bunch of other things that would be presumably be a lot easier.

There's also a forced attempt to manufacture a feeling of paranoia that seems to be all in Frank's head and then is very unconvincingly shown to be an accurate take on things. This also feels arbitrary, as well as confusing and unconvincing.

The story builds to a very downbeat ending that's disappointing not so much because of what happens but because the conclusion doesn't feel coherent or earned.

But 'tis the season for horror and this was appropriate if not fulfilling.